Rainbow Six Siege Blood Orchid is finally upon us, bringing with it not two, but three new operators, a new Hong Kong map, and a batch of new weapons. Rainbow Six Siege Blood Orchid also features a major operator rework as part of the mid-season reinforcements program that was suspended during Operation Health. Essentially, the release of Blood Orchid marks Siege’s return to normal working procedure, complete with regular content updates.

Following its full release on September 12, we now know all the crucial details about the third season of content, such as the gadgets and roles of the three new operators, and the map’s exact layout. Join us as we clarify all the vital details about Rainbow Six Siege Operation Blood Orchid.

Rainbow Six Siege Blood Orchid operators

Thanks to some datamining, we’ve known what to expect from both Rainbow Six Siege Hong Kong operators since April. Ying and Lesion are the official names of the two forthcoming SDU operators, but what gadgets and loadouts do they bring to the table, and where will they fit into Rainbow Six Siege’s constantly expanding meta? There’s also one Rainbow Six Siege Polish operator, Ela, to look at as part of Blood Orchid – we’ve got all the information on her gadget and loadout, too.

Rainbow Six Siege Ying

Gadget: Candela

Armour: 2/3

Speed: 2/3

Ying is the attacker operator from the Hong Kong Special Duties Unit. Her gadget, three Candela flash charges, function much like Fuze’s Cluster Charge in that they can be anchored onto a wall and fired into the adjacent room. However, unlike Fuze, Ying’s gadget is totally non-lethal – instead of blowing the hostage to kingdom come, the Candela will produce a series of dazzling flash charges that should blind anyone in the the room. Ying also benefits from being immune to her own flash charges, allowing you to charge in as the Candela is going off, maximising its effectiveness.

Another interesting quirk of the Candela is that it has a timer with three settings that the player can select before anchoring, which means more scope for coordinated assaults. Candela charges can also be thrown like a grenade, and if you want to use the timer function, rolled into a room. Ying only carries three Candela charges, so use them wisely.

The rest of Ying’s loadout is fairly typical – she can bring either the T-95 LSW LMG or SIX12 shotgun into battle with her. The LMG is actually more similar to an assault rifle than other LMGs in the game, whereas the shotgun is a terrifying compact 12-gauge revolver shotgun with a good bit of range – a devastating room-clearer to compliment her breaching gadget.

Rainbow Six Siege Lesion

Gadget: Gu

Armour: 2/3

Speed: 2/3

On defence for the Hong Kong SDU is Lesion. This shorts-wearing trapper carries seven Gu mines, which once placed become almost invisible thanks to some neat cloaking tech. So what do they do? Gu mines fire toxic darts when triggered, causing anyone hit by one to take gradual damage and move more slowly until they stop and remove the dart via a short animation.

Seven sounds like a lot, but Lesion’s Gu mines replenish over time, meaning you’ll only be able to place seven if you’re alive for the duration of the round. He’s ideal for stopping rushes and slowing down pushes towards the objective – Gu will give operators like Blitz and Montagne a particularly hard time.

Lesion’s loadout comprises of the same SIX12 shotgun as Ying, however he gets the T-5 SMG instead of an LMG. The T-5 has high rate of fire and solid stopping power, making it a potent weapon for close-quarters engagements.

Rainbow Six Siege Ela

Gadget: Grzmot Mine

Armour: 1/3

Speed: 3/3

Ela is the first of two Polish GROM operators coming to Rainbow Six Siege, and is a roaming defender. To help her fulfill that role, Ela carries four Grzmot Mine proximity charges – sticky, concussion grenades that cause a dizzying effect much like Echo’s Yokai drone. These proximity charges are incredibly easy to hide, owing to their ability to be thrown into unconventional hiding spots like broken floorboards and above doorways; places attackers aren’t accustomed to searching for in Rainbow Six Siege.

Grzmot Mine proximity charges can be placed to create a safe escape route for Ela, or to stun enemies before she pounces on them to deliver the final blow. Ela also carries one extra Grzmot Mine on her that can be triggered if she is downed to disorient trolls, buying Ela’s teammates some extra time to revive her.

Ela also boasts one of the best defender weapons in the game, the Scorpion EVO 3 A1. A high rate of fire makes this something of a headshot beast, despite its rather standard damage output. Alternatively, you can equip the FO-12 semi-automatic shotgun as Ela’s primary weapon – it’s nothing special, but dependable up close. One thing that makes Ela unique, is that her RG15 pistol comes with a red dot sight, making it easier to take down foes at range with your handgun than it is to reload your primary. It’s also one of the most powerful handguns in the game, so don’t overlook it in tense firefights.

Rainbow Six Siege Blood Orchid release date

The all-important question: when can you play Rainbow Six Siege Blood Orchid? The Rainbow Six Siege Blood Orchid release date has been and gone – it became available to all players on September 12, 2017, which means you can buy the new operators right now if you’ve got enough Renown or some R6 Credits. As for the Hong Kong-based Theme Park map? It has been playable since September 5 and is included in both ranked and casual playlists.

Rainbow Six Siege Hong Kong map

The last major piece of Rainbow Six Siege Blood Orchidcontent is the new Theme Park map. Based on Hong Kong’s largest theme park, Ocean Park Hong Kong, the new Rainbow Six Siege map was initially teased on the official Rainbow Six Siege Twitter account with a simple image of three characters from the Chinese alphabet daubed on an old, crumbling wall. Fans quickly sussed out that it read ‘amusement park’.

The bulk of the action takes place in a single building with a house of horrors section and an arcade hall. This main building is split in two by a monorail section that goes straight through the middle of the map. Despite being one of the largest maps in the game, Theme Park only has two floors.

Judging from our hands-on time with the new map, it a paradise for roamers, owing to its large size and number of rooms. It also boasts some of the longest lines of sight in the game, making it reliable hunting grounds for Glaz. Defenders like Frost, Rook, and Jäger should also enjoy these long sight lines.

Ubisoft Montreal have decided to include Theme Park in their new map rotation for Ranked play after initially consigning the new Rainbow Six Siege map to casual playlists only. The decision was reversed following concern from fans who didn’t want to play Casual just to try out the new map.

That’s everything we know about Rainbow Six Siege Blood Orchid. Let us know if we missed anything in the comments below.